[foxriderry]

many vehicles in Alaska and other cold countries utilize block warmers and so forth, i understand this has nothing to do with warming the fuel, however it will inevitably keep engine bay temperatures a little warmer in turn keeping the fuel in the rails warmer and what not.

It does sound like more of an electrical problem and i would bet it had to do with the amount of snow underneath your jeep however, a friendly suggestion i might offer is, don't use "scolding" hot water on anything that's frozen or maybe extremely cold, I'm pretty sure that would be an easy way to break something. As we all know when really cold things come into contact with really hot things they can cause issues. Obviously if the ice was frozen on there that may have been the only way, but that's just my $0.02, hope you get it all figured out.